And Back!

So it's been 3 months since I've put something up here and I figure I should try something controversial. Skepticism. I know, I know - you're all gasping and shocked that I would try something this controversial, but hey, that's how I do.

I've been given the cute little nickname by my friends of "Actually" - because I always point out flaws in stories/facts people use/urban legends people believe. I can't help it, I really can't. If something is inaccurate, I'd want someone to correct me (despite the stubborn bitch I am) so I don't sound unintelligent in front of others.

I think it started waaaay back in high school when my brother saw me reading a bunch of "facts" that are sent through chain letters on the interweb. You must've gotten them:

"A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why"

"Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC because it uses mutated/incest chickens that legally aren't chickens anymore"

"Humans only use 10% of their brains"

And so on and so forth. My brother saw these and asked the simple question of "Why don't you look up useFUL facts?" And so it began. I became interested in what was truly believed by credited professionals and not the crap floating around on the internet. And if something really interests me, then it's in my head. Permanently. (A ducks quack does echo, it's just the way the quack sounds that covers up it's own echo/Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC so that people wouldn't be turned off the product by the word "Fried"/Humans use 100% of their brains, just not 100% of the time)

So I would correct people that started with these urban legends and such. Most people took it swimmingly "Oh cool, I knew something was fishy about that story" was the general response. And then I began to question stories about ghosts/supernatural experiences and such. Until I made the grand affirmation: I don't believe in ghosts.

I'm not an atheist (I don't understand how an atheist can believe in ghosts, maybe someone can help me understand that). I do believe in God and the existence of the soul. But I don't believe the things that occur on Earth, matter in the grand scheme of things. I always found the belief in ghosts so very "centric" - something happened to someone, so therefore something needs to remain of that someone. One person out of 6 billion is practically nothing (mathematically speaking).

So that's why I don't believe in ghost stories. They're too "perfect" every other possibility is null and void leading the listener to only believe ONE and only ONE truth - that a ghost exists. I quietly hide my smirks whenever someone speaks of Ouiji Boards and shield them from my rolling eyes; call me a skeptic but I just can't believe that the makers of Monopoly have created a communication device with the dead.

I remember once my friend was telling me of a story about how he and a group of friends were doing the Ouiji Board at someone's house and asked the ghost what the number on the house was and it pointed to the number of the house. So I stated "well you guys knew the number on the house, when you pulled up there", my friend replied "most of us just followed one or two people, and it was dark, so no one saw the number" to which I rebutted "all it takes is one person to just nudge it [the curser] in the direction you want it to go to" to which my friend said "Noooooo, no one was moving the curser" to which I replied "But the owner of the house knows his own number" and at that point I could tell my friend was getting a little miffed, so I let it go. But there's always something to counteract the logical reasoning behind a ghost story - it was dark, no one knew the number, it moved on it's own, it was a new house so the owner wasn't accustomed to seeing his new house number - ALWAYS something to lead you to the only conclusion that 1) it was the supernatural and 2) fear it.

I think psychics are the smartest people in the world - EVERYONE is scared of death and the uncertainty of the future and what will happen to those they love. You will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have people coming to you wanting to make sure someone is ok. I would love to just go up to a psychic and say "Alright, go". Not give them my name, nor my age, or sign, not anything that they can make a generic reference to (let's face it, most people in the same age bracket are experiencing at least SOME of the same things).

I most certainly don't believe in Astrology. Your birthdate is a fluke. 9 months is the generic range. Someone women give birth early, others give birth late; it's genetics that determine when your mom is ready to pop you out, not the alignment of the stars. After you're born, then it's all exact according to your sign OR defined by some range. Jamie gave me a card reading once and said I would live anywhere from 1-2 years, 10-20 years or 100-200 years from the time of the reading. I'm not saying it wasn't fun or nifty to have my best friend give me a reading, I'm just saying for something that is already determined, it should be read like a book no? I shouldn't have a psychic tell me they are getting "someone that starts with a D" (if you were a ghost would you tell someone that can see you "tell my son, my name begins with a D"?)

I do believe in Alien races - if Earth is one of trillions upon trillions of planets that evolved life, I'm fairly certain it occurred again, somewhere else. Have they visited us? I highly doubt it; I look at the Earth as more of a Brampton of the Universe, the things worth visiting are few and far between so why travel so far for cheaper merchandise and a terribly planned piece of land?

I guess I'll always been that one guy that just bursts people's bubble; I've come to accept that nothing really magical happens here, so it's no wonder stories are created to spice things up. Then again I'll probably be the first to die once a ghost serial killer starts terrorizing my friends.